


In Between Days

by cheapqueen



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff, Pining, Recreational Drug Use, Some internalised homophobia, Underage Drinking, but not too angsty!!!, centred around Robin's thoughts and feelings mainly, just general 1985 attitudes towards gay people, ok maybe some angsty feels but not too bad, robin is a music snob in the best way, robin is a useless lesbian and Nancy is a CONFUSED BI, steve is his usual brilliant self, this will be quite slowburn, well underage in the US bc y'all have dumb laws
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-07 21:07:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19858033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheapqueen/pseuds/cheapqueen
Summary: Nancy Wheeler seems like she could do with a friend. Against her better judgement, Robin is more than willing to volunteer for that position.Or, the music store fic no one asked for! Complete with mixtapes, misunderstandings, and lots and lots of mutual pining.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a few things:  
> For the sake of plot/setting, we're gonna pretend Robin and Nancy have already graduated and are now making that shweet shweet college money at their respective jobs, and instead of working at the video store I'm having Robin and Steve work at the music store to allow my nerd self to flex her 80s music knowledge.
> 
> (Which is very British because I am British so go easy on me if this doesn't seem too realistic lol because I definitely did not live in Indiana in the eighties or anywhere because I was not alive)
> 
> Title is taken from the song by The Cure.

“Wow, dingus. Wow. How does it feel to have an opinion that’s just so completely wrong?”

Robin almost feels bad when Steve looks genuinely stung by her words. Almost. He frowns down at the sticker gun he’s holding and aggressively stamps it onto the record in his other hand – Robin snatches it from him and hugs it to her chest. “Woah, woah, woah, what did Lou Reed ever do to you?”

Steve huffs. “Y’know, you make me feel so stupid when we talk about music. I just think The Cure are depressing, that’s all. I don’t _get_ your weird British bands.”

Robin bounces over to the Cs and grabs a tape, twizzling it in her fingers as she returns to the store’s cassette player. “Well, if you think The Head On The Door is a depressing album, you should hear their earlier stuff. Give this one a try…”

She pops Faith into the tape machine and smirks as the first few hollow notes ring out, immediately causing her friend’s face to fall as he collapses onto the counter, groaning. “God, Robin, can’t you just put on something normal? You’re gonna scare off our customers.”

The girl snorts. “What customers? I can guarantee they won’t wanna hear Van Halen or whatever shit you’d put on.”

“Always acting like a God damn expert on popular music… when did you get so insufferable, kid?” Steve sighs, continuing to price records. Robin simply chuckles and returns to alphabetising the new batch of cassettes.

Damn, she loves Fridays, she thinks to herself as the pair descend into a comfortable silence. Getting a job at Hawkins’ only music store was the best thing that’s happened to her all year – not that it took much, considering she spent a week of it embroiled in what felt like an insanely high-budget horror film and a good three months recovering from it.

But Fridays – new music shipment days – at Hawkins HiFi, were a large part of the reason she hadn’t gone crazy after all that shit with the Russians had gone down. Passing the days rooting through boxes of new records and gushing about them to whoever would listen certainly helped to lift the burden of the previous summer.

That, and Steve, as much as she’d hate to admit it. They’d spent many nights sleeping on each other’s bedroom floors like teenage girls having slumber parties, except instead of talking about crushes, they’d silently acknowledge each other’s emotional turmoil, providing company and comfort where needed – nothing to really bond two people like nearly dying at the hands of evil Russians and monsters from a parallel universe, right?

Robin glances at the boy, who had at some point in the past hour switched The Cure over to Springsteen and was mouthing passionately along to Dancing In The Dark, completely in a world of his own. She smiles to herself and is about to fondly make a jab at him when the shop bell rings, interrupting her thoughts.

“Oh, hey, Nance.” Steve briefly looks up and waves at the girl who enters. She smiles sheepishly and nods a greeting, not even registering that Robin is there; which the other girl is fine with. Nancy Wheeler has never exactly been at the top of Robin’s list-of-people-to-befriend. Rich girls like that tended to look down on her so she preemptively looked down on them back.

After what looks like an unsuccessful lap of the store, Nancy stops just short of the counter Steve is leaning on. “I can’t seem to find it anywhere, but the, um… The Cure have a new album out today?”

Robin automatically perks up, turning to look at the heavily-permed girl incredulously. Nancy Wheeler? Wanting to buy _The Cure’s_ new album? She’d always struck Robin as an ABBA-type, not someone who listens to depressing rock imports-

“It’s Jonathan’s birthday in a couple of weeks, and they don’t have a record store anywhere near him in Harveysburg, so I thought I’d send it to him…”

Shit, yeah. Robin forgot the Byers were notorious for being “outsiders”, even as far as music is concerned. She tries to squash down a vague feeling of disappointment – of course Nancy wouldn’t like The Cure. Not to sound judgemental, but it’s not like she’s surprised.

“Wow, that’s a tetchy topic for us today, isn’t it, Buckley?” Steve throws an empty roll of tape at his friend’s head, forcing her out of pointedly ignoring Wheeler and directly into the conversation. She glares at him as she skulks over to the counter, ducking down to a not-yet-unpacked box of cassettes behind it. Deftly she grabs a tape and places it down in front of Nancy.

“Yeah, Harrington here isn’t a fan of the new album. I’m inclined to disagree. Maybe I should’ve been friends with Jonathan whilst he was still here,” Robin says.

“Maybe. He loves them, doesn’t shut up about them. I can’t say I’m a fan myself, though.” Nancy pushes a strand of hair behind her ear and makes shy eye contact with Robin, which the other girl immediately avoids – if there’s one thing she knows she’s good at, it’s appearing completely disinterested in the opinions of others. Something she’s had to cultivate from years of being judged for her own. 

“Careful, she’ll bite your head off for that,” Steve grins.

Robin sneers at the boy before turning to Nancy again abruptly. “That’ll be $7.50, please.”

She dips her head, searching though her purse and pulling out a couple of crumpled $5 bills. As Robin takes them she can’t help but notice the slight frown tugging at the other girl’s expression – straight away she feels bad for her standoffish demeanour and offers Nancy a quick smile, handing over her change.

“Thanks… Robin.”

“Let me know what Jonathan thinks when he’s listened to it. Hawkins is a boring as hell place to live for people who actually have good taste.”

Nancy weakly smiles and quickly turns to leave, the bell jingling as the door shuts behind her. Robin looks at Steve, whose expression is equally as perplexed as she feels.

“I don’t know what’s going on with her recently. Mike says she barely leaves her room unless she’s going to work.” Steve worries his bottom lip before shrugging and opening another box of records.

“Eh, beats me man, I’ve barely said more than two sentences to her in my whole life.”

“She’s probably lonely without Jonathan around. Maybe we should ask her to hang out?”

Robin narrows her eyes at Steve. “You trying to get back into her pants, Harrington?”

“No, jeez! Can I not just be a good friend to someone?” Steve elbows her away as she chuckles.

“I’m kidding, dingus! I don’t think she’s exactly the type of gal who I like to hang out with, but knock yourself out,” Robin retorts. She’d be lying if she said part of her wasn’t perturbed by Nancy’s gloomy mannerisms though – she barely knew the girl but Nancy is known for being preppy and likeable, and seeing her wearing her unhappiness so clearly on her sleeve was… strange.

“Nance is cool. I think you’d be surprised how well you’d get along with her, Robs. Quit being so judgey.”

Robin grunts in response, not yet convinced.

But then she thinks of that look in Nancy’s eyes – a hazy, lost look she’d so often seen in Steve’s eyes, or mirrored in her own, a look only someone who has seen some serious _shit_ go down can possess, and her resolve lessens slightly.

Slightly.

**x x x x x**

Over the next couple of weeks, Nancy Wheeler shows up at Hawkins HiFi on a pretty regular basis.

The first time she came was with Mike and Dustin, who had dragged her there because they were “in desperate, desperate need” of the _Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi_ soundtrack – they’d recently acquired a VHS camcorder and were very much on a home-movie hype, and of course, their masterpieces needed only the best soundtracks. And Nancy had somehow gotten roped in to driving them around Hawkins looking for “supplies”.

Robin’s eyebrows quirk in amusement as she catches a glimpse of the other girl’s face behind the shelves – she looked mildly fed up but was clearly stifling a smile, too, as Steve did some convoluted, OTT handshake with Dustin and then Mike in turn.

“He’s such a dork, right?” Robin chuckles, and Nancy jumps slightly, clearly completely unaware of Robin’s presence. She peers at her over the shelves before rounding them to face her directly, shaking her head in faux-exasperation.

“He’s just as much of a kid as they are, I swear. I’m considering just leaving them here with him. Just driving off without them.”

“Don’t you fucking dare, Wheeler, I don’t think I could cope with the three of them. It’s only an hour til close but that’s long enough.” Robin crosses her arms as she studies the other girl’s face, pleased to see that other than barely-concealed dark circles, she looks much perkier than she did the other day. Nancy seems to waver slightly under Robin’s gaze for a second before meeting it confidently – the playful glint in her eye causes a strange jolt of softness in Robin’s chest and prompts a question to spill out of her mouth she didn’t even register she was thinking at all.

“But, you could hang out here until then? Like, so those three can just be doofuses together. And we can ignore them together.” Robin averts her eyes and hurriedly turns back to stacking shelves, suddenly very nervous and very confused as to why she cared so much what response she got, and surprised with herself for even saying it in the first place. To Nancy fucking Wheeler of all people.

“As much as that genuinely sounds like fun, I’ve gotta tutor a kid in about half an hour, so I need to get these two home ASAP…” Robin glances up at Nancy and catches on her face a brief flash of regret that for some reason makes Robin feel infinitely comforted. “But another time, yeah? Maybe I’ll stop round later this week, if you’re working?”

“Steve and I are here every day apart from weekends, so if you get _really_ bored, feel free.”

Nancy nods once and smiles up at Robin through her permed fringe, before rushing over to the counter and paying Steve for the soundtrack. She stops just short of the shop door, turning to the other girl one last time. “Stevie Nicks? Did you put this on?”

“Well it wasn’t gonna be Harrington putting it on, was it?”

Nancy looks thoughtful for a second, before grinning openly at Robin. “Nice.”

And then she’s gone, and Robin feels an unexpected pang of disappointment.

“What was that all about?” Steve asks from the other side of the store.

“What was what all about? Shut up.”

“Woah, defensive, much? I thought you didn’t like Nancy, or have any interest in getting to know her, that’s all.”

“I don’t. She just seems kinda sad. I don’t like seeing people sad.” Robin mutters, trying to justify her sudden fascination with the girl to herself just as much as Steve.

Steve tuts mockingly and shakes his head, a knowing look in his eye. Robin chooses to ignore that, for now.

Nancy is pretty and all but she’s a priss. And Robin is just a nice, caring person. That’s all there is to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I mention this is my first ever fic? Apologies if it's terrible!


	2. Chapter 2

The next time Nancy visits Hawkins HiFi, Robin is quite fucking stoned, and therefore, quite fucking caught off guard.

The good thing about working in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, is that barely any customers show up, ever. At least once a week since they started working at the store, Steve and Robin would take turns to watch the place whilst the other snuck out back for a joint – it wasn’t like pricing cassettes and stacking shelves of CDs and records required much concentration, so doing it whilst high wasn’t difficult and just made the shifts pass quicker.

Robin had only touched weed once or twice before she became close with Steve, but she loved smoking around him – their conversations reached a new level of entertainingly stupid when they were baked, and she felt comfortable acting like an idiot around him. On the rare occasion a customer did come in, Robin would just leave the talking to Steve, worried she’d just either clam up or start giggling in their face.

But on this specific Thursday afternoon, Robin re-enters the store, reeking of weed, to be met with a customer she couldn’t just ignore. Nancy is leaning on the counter, chatting animatedly to Steve about something Robin didn’t really register because her mind had gone completely blank for some reason.

“Hey, Robin!” Nancy smiles at the presence of the other girl. “I reached a level of boredom no longer tolerable so thought I’d stop by.”

Robin suddenly becomes incredibly aware of the positioning of her own limbs and awkwardly leans back on the staff door, arms crossed. She glances at Steve, not entirely sure what for, maybe in the hope that he’d somehow be able to provide her with the words her socially-anxious stoned brain is struggling to come up with.

“Yo. I mean, hey Nancy.” Robin mentally kicks herself. Yo? What the fuck? “You looking for anything in particular, or…?” She quickly saves as Steve rolls his eyes, suppressing a bark of laughter.

“Just some company, really. I keep working early, early shifts and finding myself bored out of my mind by 2pm… and boredom leads to overthinking, and that’s never fun.” Nancy confesses, chewing on her bottom lip and thus, immediately drawing Robin’s attention to it.

She catches herself staring, mouth slightly ajar, and pulls her eyes away to meet the other girl’s.

“Yeah, I definitely get the boredom thing. Think I’d go mad if I didn’t have Steve here…” she mumbles, half to herself, trying to push down the weird feeling of warmth flooding her chest after catching Nancy's blue eyes. It’s just the weed, she tells herself.

The three settle into pleasant conversation, touching upon the younger teens, how much Mike was missing El, Suzie coming to visit Dustin, how much they missed the vague entertainment Starcourt had provided, Nancy’s frustrating colleagues and of course, Steve’s hair. A few customers came and went, but eventually there was a gap wide enough for Steve to dip out for a joint.

Robin suddenly felt oddly exposed from Steve’s absence – it wasn’t that she was a particularly shy person, she just wasn’t too good at talking to people she didn’t know very well, one-on-one. Especially when those people are girls called Nancy Wheeler who seemingly insist on keeping eye contact with you and smiling demurely the whole time. Normally that kind of deliberately coy behaviour rubbed Robin up the wrong way, she found it contrived, but today it was making her stomach flip in ways she could only attribute to still being slightly stoned.

“So, do the two of you do that a lot, then?” Nancy asks, a teasing lilt to her voice.

“Do… what?”

“Get stoned on shift.”

Robin fiddles with the hem of her shirt, angling her head down in a display of faux-guilt. “… No….”

“You’re definitely stoned right now, though. God, Steve is a bad influence on people.” Nancy breaks into a wide grin which Robin shyly returns.

“Hey, how do you know it’s not me corrupting him?” she retorts.

“You did spelling bees right up until senior year.”

“So did you!”

“Exactly my point!” Nancy leans over the counter to shove Robin’s shoulder, both girls’ laughter filling the store and causing any previous awkwardness to dissipate. “I know I’ve only met you like, twice, officially, but I like high you.”

Robin quirks an eyebrow at Nancy. “How so?”

“You’re more awkward.” When Robin looks slightly affronted, Nancy jumps in again quickly. “It’s cute. Like, cute awkward.” The brunette breaks eye contact to play sheepishly with a tape gun on the counter.

Robin feels herself turn red, grateful that she was rapidly sobering up, or she’d probably have turned into a puddle there and then. She tries to find adequate words to reply with, but luckily Steve returns at that exact moment yelling at Robin to put Starship on the cassette player.

She rolls her eyes but complies, and both girls join in when Steve starts belting We Built This City at the top of his lungs. Robin tries very hard to ignore the heat that floods her cheeks whenever she glances at Nancy, and tells herself she’s definitely imagining it when Nancy seems to be looking back at her with equal frequency.

The only reason Nancy is even with them right now is because she misses her boyfriend. When Robin remembers that, the feeling of disappointment in the pit of her stomach is undeniable.

**x x x x x x x**

It’s the following Monday when Nancy stops over at Hawkins HiFi again, and the relief that Robin feels when she walks through the door catches her off guard. It’s because Steve isn’t here and you’re just lonely and bored, Robin tells herself. It’s not like you’ve been waiting all day for her, or anything. It’s not like your thoughts kept drifting back to her all weekend.

“Hey Robin. No Steve?” Nancy enquires as she shuts the door behind her, beelining for the counter Robin is stood behind. Briefly Robin takes in the brunette’s appearance, eyes lingering perhaps a little too long on her lightly tanned legs, fully exposed by the little high-waisted denim shorts she was wearing.

“No Steve. He’s sick, I think. Or on the second day of his hangover.” Robin rolls her eyes.

“I’m kind of glad, actually, I was hoping we could chat. Steve would probably just make things awkward, being my ex and all.” Nancy sighed, hoisting herself onto the counter and kicking her legs back and forth restlessly.

Robin feels a pang of anxiety. That sounded serious. “What’s up, Nancy?”

Noticing Robin’s cautious expression, Nancy chuckles. “Don’t worry, I’m not confessing some deep secret to you or anything. I just wanted… I don’t know. A girly chat. Not really had many of those since Barb, you know...”

Robin has to actively work to disguise the distaste on her face at that statement – she’s never been good at dealing with anything that had “girly” connotations. The few friends she’s had – always a very closed off group, before the majority went off to college – didn’t like talking about stuff like that. Crushes, gossiping, most feelings-related stuff, it was all off limits unless it felt necessary to talk about.

That’s why she liked Steve so much; even though they’d both, understandably, been traumatised by the events at Starcourt, there was an unspoken agreement that if one called the other up in the middle of a sleepless night, it wasn’t for the purpose of _talking,_ but more for comfort. Distraction. Company.

It’s also why she’d never come out to anyone, until Steve. It just hadn’t felt necessary. Robin could, if she was lying to herself, put telling Steve down to the after-effects of the truth serum, but in actuality it had been tearing her apart at the seams for a while and for some unknown reason Steve just felt like the right person to tell. Maybe it was the fact that they’d just stared potential death in the face together, or the way he had been looking at her like she was someone special, someone worth keeping in your life no matter what, she felt some innate trust in him she’d never felt in anyone else before.

Never in her life would she have thought she’d be attached at the hip with _Steve Harrington_ of all people, but she was grateful for it. For him. He had an unwavering confidence in her personhood that she’d never even felt deserving of before, but Steve made her feel like she deserved it, and she had the same faith in him.

So when Nancy uttered the words “girly chat”, Robin’s initial thought was, gross, talking about feelings, which she immediately felt guilty for. But, Nancy was worrying her bottom lip with her teeth in a way that was as adorable as it was concerning, and it made Robin genuinely curious to hear what the other girl needed to say. “Um, shoot.”

“Jonathan is acting weird.”

Oh, great. Robin pushed down the out-of-the-blue feeling of annoyance she got from hearing that name and mentally berated herself. She’d literally spoken to the guy once, and he seemed perfectly nice, in fact, probably the kind of guy Robin would get on great with, but hearing his name from Nancy’s mouth? Annoying, inconvenient. Why? She didn’t wanna dwell on it. “In what way?”

“Whenever I call him, he like… seems short with me. He makes excuses to go, after like, being on the phone for ten minutes. I’ve tried asking him if everything is okay but he just insists it is and acts confused as to why I’d think it wasn’t,” Nancy replies, sighing emphatically and giving Robin a look filled with exasperation at even thinking about it.

“Short like, how?”

“Like. Not interested in anything I’m saying. And not telling me anything that’s happening with him. Like he can’t wait to get off the phone and… I don’t know. What even is there to do Harveysburg?” Nancy huffs and looks at the ceiling.

Robin considers what to say, more than anything wanting to just exit this conversation stage left. She doesn’t know what Nancy wants from her – she literally knows nothing about her relationship. The brunette must be lonelier than she thought, to come to Robin to unload. At that thought she softens slightly, her concerned eyes scanning Nancy’s frustrated face.

“Maybe he legitimately is doing nothing, so feels he has nothing to say? I don’t know, dude, boys are just…” Robin says, as if she has a single clue what boys are really like. “I’m sure he is interested in what you have to say. He’d be stupid if he wasn’t. You’re a really interesting person, from what I know of you. Really.” All hints of her usual sarcasm drop from her raspy voice on that last sentence, and she smiles softly up at Nancy.

She’s definitely, definitely not imagining the blush tinting the other girl’s cheeks, or the way her eyelashes flutter shut momentarily before she meets Robin’s gaze for what feels like the longest second of her life.

“You’re probably right. Part of me feels like I’m making up problems where there aren’t any… because of, I don’t know. The distance I guess. It’s a lot.” Nancy sighs. She moves her hand so it brushes against Robin’s arm rested on the counter. “Thanks, Robin.”

Robin inhales sharply and swallows. Is the atmosphere actually stifling right now or is the fluttering in her chest just making it hard to breathe?

“That’s okay. If uh, if he doesn’t up his game soon tell him a girl he barely knows will give him a right talking to.” Robin stumbles out, feeling quite out of her depth. “That girl being me. Of course.”

Nancy laughs, shaking her head. “Of course. You sound like my mom, you dork.”

“Hey!” Robin gasps in mock annoyance. “Last time I ever try and stick up for you!”

There’s a beat of silence as Nancy gives Robin an unreadable look. “You’re really nice, you know. I always thought you cool girls were kinda mean, but I’m starting to think I was wrong.”

Robin blinks, dumbfounded – did she really hear that right? “Cool? What… what do you mean cool girls?” She pauses for thought again, furrowing her brow in offence. “What do you mean, ‘ _mean_ ’?”

Nancy grins at Robin’s clear confusion. “You know what I mean! You and Faye Davis and Miranda Nichols and… whoever else you used to hang out with. Janis Porter! You’d sit in the maths stairwell and look so intimidating, listening to your cool music and wearing your cool chokers and stuff.” She studies Robin’s still-baffled face. “Miranda had green hair! That’s cool! You’d ignore everyone else and like, I don’t know, get really good grades but not be nerds, you didn’t have to try. You never seemed to care at all what anyone thought of you. I always envied that, quite a lot.”

A series of expressions passed over Robin’s face, all conveying some form of disbelief. Nancy Wheeler… thought she was cool? This whole time? Who else thought that, or was it just Nancy? She’d been convinced for the whole of high school that everyone thought her and her friends were really weird, because they didn’t care about cheerleading or football and were much more interested in, well, the world outside Hawkins.

“I can’t believe you thought I was cool. You’re joking, right? And what do you mean we didn’t try? I tried really fucking hard at school, I’ll have you know!” Robin huffed, crossing her arms. “And I wasn’t mean. Or intimidating. No one even tried to talk to us so how would you know?”

Nancy bites her lip, clearly thinking about this a lot. “Well, I guess personally I never tried to talk to you because I thought you’d think I was boring. Or a priss, or something.”

Robin feels a huge twang of guilt. Nancy wasn’t wrong, then. Did she really come across as that judgemental in high school? I mean, maybe she did. Maybe she actually _was._ Yikes. “I never thought of it like that.”

“Well, high school is high school, it’s all petty bullshit anyway, right? Especially after you've encountered literal monsters from another dimension.” Nancy slides off the counter to lean her elbows on it, directly across from Robin. She seems incredibly casual about the close proximity of their faces, but it’s sending blood pounding through Robin’s ears, so she stands up straight, moving slightly away from the other girl.

“Amen to that.” Robin mumbles, glancing up at the clock. Just two hours left, thank fuck.

Nancy must have noticed her looking, because she asks “what time do you get off? Wanna come over and watch a movie when you’re done?”

Shit. “Yes,” Robin says, way too quickly and enthusiastically. She visibly winces at herself, to which Nancy just laughs, clearly not reading too deeply into it. Or if she was, she wasn’t letting it on. “Uh, I get off at five. Maybe half past, since I need to close up.”

“Great! Well, I’m quite the movie aficionado, if I do say so myself, so you better be looking forward to whatever I pick out.” Nancy leans over and grabs a pen from behind the counter, before taking Robin’s arm and writing an address on it. “There you go. I’ll see you around six, then?”

Robin blinks, the feeling of Nancy’s hand on her arm for some reason leaving her momentarily speechless. “Um. Yeah. Sure.”

“Sweet, well… I’m gonna head, I need to pick some stuff up from the store on my way back.” Nancy seems to be practically vibrating as she leaves Hawkins HiFi, a smile plastered on her face. Just before she opens the door, she turns back to Robin. “This mixtape, by the way? You’re going to have to make me a copy. I’ve been loving it this whole time.”

Robin’s face splits into a grin. “Sure thing.”

The fluttering in her chest doesn’t stop for a good half an hour after Nancy leaves, exacerbated further when she notices Nancy signed her address with a little heart. What the fuck is she getting herself into?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if anyone's into astrology I made up the character's birth charts lol, ask me if u wanna know what i think (spoiler: Robin is a big ol aquarius, Nancy is a virgo and Steve is a leo) 
> 
> Also, I made a little playlist for this fic you can listen to [ here!](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7mEEnKIFGTxqx5l6Uu53wg?si=Mvn_WqZeQiCREoYJO5FRXQ)
> 
> it's very cute and gay


	3. Chapter 3

By the time Robin arrives at Nancy’s house it’s nearly seven – the bike ride there took longer than she’d anticipated. And she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t spent about half an hour in the staff restroom checking and then double-checking her hair and applying just the bare amount of eyeliner. Her “effortless” appearance usually had a decent amount of effort put into it, contrary to popular belief – she just didn’t want people knowing that.

The Wheeler house was pretty big. Much bigger than the three-bedroom bungalow Robin shared with her dad (when he was actually around) and her younger sister, but slightly smaller than Steve’s sprawling home; Robin had actually felt quite bad about herself when she’d visited the Harringtons’ for the first time, despite never normally caring about money or material possessions or any of that stuff.

She hoped Nancy didn’t have a pool.

Robin leans her bike against the garage door before glancing over her appearance one last time in the reflection of the car parked up in the driveway. Thankfully she’d felt like dressing nice this morning – rather than her usual attire of a t shirt tucked into baggy jeans, she wore a polo shirt with a plaid skirt, the only skirt she owned but absolutely loved. Her dad always told her she dressed “ahead of her time” – she knew that was just code for unfashionably, but she thought she looked cool, so.

As she rang the doorbell Robin tried to swallow the anxious feelings rising in her throat – all she was doing was watching a movie with a girl she, up until a few days ago, really couldn’t care less about. So why did it feel like a big deal?

“Robin! What are you doing at my house?” she’s jarred out of her thoughts by a confused looking Mike. “Steve isn’t here and hasn’t been here in like, six months or something so I don’t really know why you’d come-“

“I’m here for Nancy, doofus.” Robin interrupts, and as if on cue, Nancy descends the stairs with a concerned look on her face. Mike shrugs, unbothered, and scurries off to the basement.

“I was beginning to think you were ditching me, what took so long?” Nancy’s twinkling eyes show she clearly wasn’t really annoyed, but Robin couldn’t help but feel guilty anyway.

“Closing up took longer than I anticipated, as did getting here, I got a bit lost, my bike chain kept fucking up-“

“Shit, Robin, if I’d known you weren’t driving I’d have offered to pick you up! We’re like, a half hour drive from the store, cycling must have taken an age.” Nancy looks needlessly sheepish as she ushers Robin into the hallway and closes the door behind her. Robin feels the usual embarrassment she feels whenever she confronts the fact everyone in Hawkins can seemingly afford a car but her – she shakes it off quickly though and follows Nancy upstairs.

The Wheeler house is cute. What you’d expect for middle class American suburbia, but with little hints of character dotted around. Robin only really sees the first floor landing, but the wallpaper is half-floral, half-candystripe – not too easy on the eyes but certainly… interesting.

They enter a room she presumes is Nancy’s, and Robin takes in her surroundings. The walls are pink and white, not covered floor to ceiling in posters like her own – aside from a framed picture of Tom Cruise, and a few polaroids of Nancy with an assortment of people, there wasn’t a great deal adorning them. Her bookshelf, however, was full to burst, and leaning against her desk was a pin board covered in tacks, photos, newspaper clippings and red string. Robin smiles to herself. That was some real investigative journalist shit.

Then, she notices what’s perched in the corner, and nearly swoons with jealousy. “You have a VHS player in your bedroom?”

Nancy grins as Robin begins to pick through her video collection. “I’d let you choose what we watch, but I already have something in mind. You can borrow anything you want, though.”

“You weren’t kidding when you said you’re a movie buff, huh? Can I borrow this?” Robin turns, holding up a copy of _The Dead Zone_.

“Of course,” Nancy replies, a bashful expression on her face. Robin smiles; the other girl was even more of a nerd than she thought, judging by some of the titles she’d spotted in the pile. She wonders which parent the Wheeler kids got it from.

“So, what are we watching, Nance?”

The brunette picks up a VHS and slots it into the player, pausing it before anything of substance flashes up on the TV. “All in good time. Make yourself comfortable – I’m gonna get us some popcorn.”

And with that, Robin finds herself alone in Nancy’s room.

She glances between the bed and the pin board, clearly shoved to the side so people don’t notice it – curiosity gets the better of her, and she crouches down to inspect it.

Red string links a picture of an old lady to a blurry looking animal… a huge rat, maybe? Next to it is a label, torn off a packet of fertiliser – Robin thinks she recognises the brand from her own backyard. Further up is a clipping from July 5th of that year, from an article she herself had kept about Starcourt burning down. Then, simply the word “magnets”, scrawled on a piece of paper and pinned on top of a photo of a hospital room.

Robin understood what the board was getting at – she’d been involved in all that shit herself, but the reminder that Nancy had been even more deeply embroiled than she had caught her off guard. Sometimes she completely forgot the other girl had been through just as much, if not more, than her. Steve was right. Wheeler _was_ pretty bad-ass.

When she hears footsteps coming up stairs, Robin quickly stands and plops herself down onto Nancy’s – incredibly comfortable – bed. She feigns what she hopes is an absentminded look, as if she hadn’t just been nosing through Nancy’s stuff a second ago.

“Okay, you ready?” Nancy re-enters her room, one arm wrapped around a bowl of popcorn and beers in both her hands. “Wasn’t sure if you’d want one, I can get you a coke if you’d prefer.”

“Nah, beer is great, thanks.” Robin smiles nervously and takes a bottle, suddenly acutely aware that she’s going to be sat very close to the other girl for an extended period. She leans back on the headboard, pulling her knees to her chest and watching as Nancy presses play on the VHS and bounces over to the bed.

Robin feels a rush of excitement when the opening music begins and the title screen shows. She turns to grin at Nancy. “Streetcar! Fucking classic!”

“So you approve?”

“Hell yeah I approve!” Robin grabs some popcorn from the bowl in Nancy’s lap and stretches her legs out. “For some reason I had you pinned as a Grease gal - you’re full of surprises.”

“Hey, don’t knock Grease, it’s a good movie,” Nancy pouts, making Robin laugh through a mouthful of popcorn.

“True.”

The two girls lapse into an easy silence, sipping their beers and occasionally mouthing the words of the movie at each other and giggling. By about halfway in, Nancy has drifted close enough to Robin on the bed that their shoulders and thighs are touching – or Robin had shuffled over to Nancy. Who knew? All Robin was certain of was that the heat of Nancy’s bare leg against her own was making it impossible to concentrate on anything.

She gulps down the rest of her beer quickly, trying to focus on Marlon Brando’s voice as much as she can. Or how pretty Vivien Leigh was as Blanche. Anything but the steady rise and fall of Nancy’s chest beside her, or the way she licks her lips after taking a sip of her drink, or the adorable little gasps and noises of incredulity she makes whenever Stanley says something nasty.

Briefly she worries that Nancy can hear how quickly her heart is pounding, before realising how stupid that is.

Eventually Robin gets used to the proximity and manages to catch the thread of the movie again – the flush that had been spreading across her chest and face fades. Nancy is just a girl, she tells herself. Be fucking normal.

Easier said than done, though, when in the final fifteen minutes, said girl’s head ends up resting on Robin’s shoulder – no, practically nuzzled into her neck, as Nancy grows visibly perturbed by what was happening on the screen. Their sides were now entirely pressed together, and Robin feels a pang of disgust with herself when she realises how much she’s enjoying the feeling, how intoxicated she is by the scent of Nancy’s perfume – jasmine with a hint of something sweeter.

Feels even more disgust at how much she enjoys when Blanche smashes a bottle and causes Nancy to jump and grab onto Robin’s thigh briefly. 

They stay in that position until the end of the film – leaning on each other, Nancy curled into Robin’s side with the back of her hand resting on the other girl’s thigh. Robin can’t stop glancing down at the brunette, feeling a rush of warmth as she takes in Nancy’s long eyelashes, the way the ends of her hair just about tickle her delicate collarbones, the furrow in her brow and the sharp-yet-feminine line of her jaw.

Robin has to stop herself from lifting her fingers to that jaw and tracing it, gently tilting Nancy’s face upwards so she could stare into her eyes properly-

She snaps herself out of her thoughts, cursing mentally. Forces herself to watch. The damn. _Movie_.

“Whoever you are… I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” Both girls find themselves whispering Vivien Leigh’s iconic last line in unison, glancing at each other after they do it. They hold embarrassed eye contact for a few seconds, before Nancy sets them off into a fit of giggles. Mockingly they yell “Stella! Stella!” as the movie ends, causing each other to laugh even more.

Feelings of guilt aside, this is the happiest Robin has felt in ages. She doesn’t know what moves her to tell Nancy this, but she does, looking down at the girl resting on her shoulder.

Nancy looks back up at her and blinks in surprise. Her whole face lights up slightly. “Me, too.”

The air in the room suddenly feels thick as Robin’s eyes flicker over Nancy’s features, eventually meeting her soft gaze. She feels her heart flutter, seeing the blush she knows is on her own cheeks is mirrored on Nancy’s.

She melts a little when Nancy tilts her head and says, “I think you’re good for me, Robin.”

“Yeah?” Robin says so softly its barely audible. She felt like jelly. The brush of Nancy’s thigh against her own, the closeness of her face, the blue of her eyes, her own body was on fire and Nancy had no fucking idea.

“Yeah.” The other girl’s breathing had noticeably quickened.

“Cute.”

Robin glances at Nancy’s slightly parted lips and she doesn’t miss when Nancy does the same to her own. _Fuck_. There’s a jolt of heat low down in her stomach, almost pulling her forward, making her want to lean in, feel those lips against hers and curl her fingers into Nancy’s hair and press their bodies flush together and it’s that thought that makes her swallow heavily and turn away.

She’d never felt so uncomfortable with herself in her life.

Nancy coughs awkwardly and hops off the bed, taking way too long to turn off the VHS player and find the box the video tape came in. Robin anxiously flattens out her skirt, the sudden barrage of negative thoughts in her head causing her brain to halt entirely, as if it had disconnected from her body. She glances at her watch.

“Um, it’s getting late, I should probably get going.”

Nancy’s smile is somewhat strained as she responds. “You sure you don’t want to sleep here? It’s pretty dark out.”

“Thanks for the offer but I should probably get home. I need to wake my sis up for school tomorrow.” That, and you don’t really want a weirdo like me sleeping in your house especially when you literally have a boyfriend, Robin thinks to herself, any previous fluttering in her stomach replaced by a gutting, empty sensation.

“I’ll um, see you out, then.” Nancy opens her door and they descend the stairs in a heavy silence. Robin wanted nothing more, now, than to get home and curl up in bed – they’d been having such a nice evening, why did she have to go and make it weird?

“See you around, Nance – thanks for the popcorn and beer and… yeah.” Robin pulls the front door open, trying to stop her voice from wavering too much. Nancy gives her a confused look, brow furrowed in concern. She puts a hand on Robin’s shoulder and pulls her back gently.

“Wait, Robin – are you okay?”

She nods her head quickly as she stares at the floor. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Nancy raises an eyebrow at her, chasing Robin’s eyes with her own and forcing her to look at her directly. She smiles questioningly.

“What?” Robin asks. Nancy just keeps looking at her with a silly, quizzical expression until she can’t help but grin. “I’m fine, seriously.”

The brunette searches Robin’s features before pulling her into a tight hug, catching the other girl off guard. Robin cautiously winds her arms around Nancy’s waist and allows herself to herself sink into the embrace.

“Thank you for coming over tonight. I had a really good time,” Nancy says softly. She pulls back and smiles reassuringly at her. “I’ll visit you in the store this week – Wednesday, maybe?”

Robin lets out a breath and nods, feeling somewhat less terrible about herself than she did a minute ago – but the hollow feeling in her chest lingered. “Sure. And I had a nice time too, Nance. I’ll see you.”

She leaves, mounts her bike and begins to cycle home, suddenly exhausted and in desperate need of just shutting her brain off. Nancy clearly liked hanging out with her – and Robin really, really liked hanging out with Nancy, perhaps too much. Her presence was becoming more and more addictive and Robin didn’t _need_ another Tammy Thompson in her life, didn’t need the heartache and self-loathing that came with liking girls who were clearly besotted with guys.

No more spending time with Nancy one on one, she told herself. Switch any feelings off before they get out of hand. She’s had plenty of practice at that, it shouldn’t be that hard, just… create a friendly distance.

But the last thing the girl thought of before she fell asleep was Nancy’s voice saying, “I think you’re good for me, Robin.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for the lovely comments guys!!! 
> 
> shit is gonna get real gay soon i promise
> 
> also can u tell i really like a streetcar named desire lol


	4. Chapter 4

The “keeping a friendly distance” thing went as well as it could, for a long while. Nancy kept visiting Hawkins HiFi on a regular basis; for the last hour or so of every other shift, after she’d finished at The Hawkins Post, she’d stop by and just chat to Steve and Robin about all kinds of inane shit. In fact, she came in so regularly that their boss, James, jokingly threatened to start kicking her out unless she bought anything.

And she did sometimes buy things. Every Friday morning Robin would dig through the new releases, painstakingly listening to everything to decide what she deemed fit to top her fun new display idea, “Hawkins HiFi’s Most Hailed” - a chart, of sorts, of the best new music. And almost every week, Nancy would end up purchasing whatever Robin picked as number one. 

Not because Robin was specifically choosing things she thought Nancy would like, or anything.

Every time Nancy bought a vinyl LP or a cassette - she said she couldn’t decide which she preferred the sound of – and it was from the top of the chart, Robin would have to fight down the giddy feeling that rose in her stomach and pretend she was just smiling so much because she was “smug about her superior music taste”.

Nancy would always roll her eyes and tell her not to let it go to her head.

One Friday, Robin goes out on a limb and puts an Indochine tape on the top of the chart. She waits anxiously for Nancy, who arrives three hours later and, as predicted, takes the cassette to Robin with a curious look on her face.

“This is… French?” Nancy raises her eyebrow.

“Yeah.” Robin briefly looks up from the book she’s feigning reading, trying to appear as casual as possible.

Nancy just starts laughing.

“What?” Robin feels slightly stung.

“That’s new levels of pretentious even for you, Robin.”

“That’s what I said!” Steve chimes in from behind a shelf.

Robin crosses her arms and scowls at Nancy, who stifles her laughter and looks away guiltily – still biting her lip in amusement. “Sorry! It’s just, how do you even enjoy it properly if you can’t understand what they’re singing?”

Robin scoffs. “You don’t have to understand the lyrics to like it - and anyway, I can understand what they’re singing. I know French, Nance.”

“What, like, you took it in high school?” Nancy shoots her a challenging look.

“No, I speak French. Like, I’m fluent.” Now it was Robin’s turn to look smug. The other girl’s mouth opens slightly in shock, and Robin feels her cheeks go red – mission impress Nancy Wheeler accomplished.

“Yeah, Buckley can speak like, four languages. How do you think she worked out that Russian code?” Steve boasts, strolling over to the counter and grinning at his friend proudly.

“Three, actually. But yeah. It’s nothing,” Robin shrugs before quickly glancing up at Nancy to gauge her reaction.

“B-but… how? What others?” Nancy blinks. She’s staring at Robin like she’s slightly starstruck. Robin turns sheepish under her gaze, fiddling with the sleeve of her sweater.

“Um, Italian and Spanish as well as French. And I’m trying to learn Mandarin but obviously, that’s harder… I don’t know, I just picked it up I guess. Watching foreign movies, listening to foreign bands… the HiFi has always been really good for importing international music, and I’ve been coming here since I was a kid, so…”

“Huh.” Nancy wets her lips, drifting into her thoughts for a second. “That’s kinda… hot.”

Robin’s whole body tenses up and heat shoots directly between her legs. She’s aware of the intensity with which she’s staring at Nancy, but she’s staring right back at her, and they forget Steve is even there for a few seconds before he coughs obnoxiously. He glances between the two girls with a shit-eating grin on his face.

“Uh, sorry to interrupt ladies, but we have a customer.” Steve gestures to a middle-aged man stood behind Nancy. He smirks. “Were you in your own little world there, Robs?”

Robin glares at him before turning to the customer. “Hi! Sorry, I didn’t even- um, what can I do for you?”

“Hi, yeah, I was wondering if you have the new Iron Maiden album?...”

Occurrences like that happen frequently – Nancy would compliment Robin a _lot_. Her clothes, her hair, her insights into things, her taste in stuff… a lot of the time immediately preceded by something teasingly rude, but unless Robin was completely misreading things, the compliments often overstepped the line of “friendly”.

Like when Robin mentions she plays the drums, and Nancy responds, “I’ve always thought drummers are way hotter than guitarists.” 

Or when Lovergirl by Teena Marie comes on in the store, and Nancy says completely casually to Robin, “this song always makes me think of you.” When Robin asks her why, she looks embarrassed and replies unconvincingly, “I don’t know, the beat?”

Or when Robin tells a story, and Nancy is just smiling stupidly at her the whole time. When she asks “what?”, Nancy says, “I could listen to you talk all day.”

 _Especially_ when Steve says “wow, Nance, stop staring at Robin’s ass,” and instead of just glaring at him for being stupid, Nancy goes bright red and barely speaks for the next ten minutes.

Okay, that last one wasn’t a compliment, exactly, but Robin still counted it.

Every single time she’d find herself at a loss for words, resorting mostly to just avoiding eye contact and then grinning into her hands when Nancy wasn’t looking.

Sometimes, though, she’d find herself responding by gazing at Nancy with barely restrained longing, before she got a hold of herself. _Boyfriend,_ a little voice in her head would always yell. _Normal. Not interested in you like that._

Reminding herself usually did the trick, and most of the time, Robin found it easy to just be Nancy’s friend. Being her friend meant learning about the brunette, and that was definitely something Robin liked to do.

She learnt that Nancy had deferred a place to study journalism at Northwestern – which made Robin smile, because she’d done the same for University of Chicago, to study sociology. She also learnt that Nancy was trying to go vegetarian, because she’d read about how environmentally sustainable it is. Her favourite colour was purple, and she adored Tears For Fears – like, _really_ loved them. Nancy was a huge horror buff; Mike actually got that from her, she just kept it on the down-low whereas he wouldn’t shut up about it. She preferred beer to any fruity concoction, and she was much more of a night person, but was trying to train herself into loving mornings.

She learnt that Nancy didn’t want to stay in America forever – as soon as she could she wanted to move to Europe, maybe Switzerland if she could ever afford it. Nancy didn’t want to settle anywhere until she’d made some big discovery, ideally one that would greatly benefit people. She was afraid of the ocean, but even more deeply afraid of never being able to uncover the truth of what was in it – there was something about the concept of the unknown she just didn’t want to accept, and that applied for all things in life.

Robin learnt that _she_ just couldn’t learn enough about Nancy Wheeler, so she started subconsciously noticing everything about her.

She noticed that Nancy always triple-checked she’d locked her car before coming into the store. She noticed how whenever Nancy wore accessories in her hair, she made sure they matched her lipstick – and she noticed that a lot of her blouses and shirts had deliberately mismatched buttons sewn onto them, but it always worked.

She noticed the special smile Nancy had reserved for Steve – an eyebrow always quirked, accompanied with an exasperated sigh, but twinkling eyes full of affection. She noticed the way she chewed her lip and furrowed her brow when she was concentrating hard, and she noticed how Nancy always subconsciously nodded and “hmm’d” when you were speaking to her – it made Robin feel properly listened to.

She noticed the puppy-dog expression Nancy always put on when she wanted something, and the adorable smirk on her face whenever she inevitably got it. She noticed the way she never interrupted anyone and would always prompt people to speak again if they’d been spoken over.

She noticed Nancy’s eyes, and the way they lit up when she spoke about the things she loved. She noticed, and admired regularly, her sharp cheekbones and jawline, and the way they became more pronounced when Nancy properly grinned. She noticed her delicate hands and her slender fingers, and the way they usually seemed to be fidgeting with something, and she noticed the curve of her neck into her shoulders, her legs, long and athletic, she took in as much of Nancy Wheeler as she could whenever she was around, whether she tried to or not.

Sometimes, she’d find herself making up excuses to touch Nancy somehow; brushing their fingers together for too long whenever she handed her something and touching their shoulders when they stood next to each other.

Nancy often seemed to do the same with Robin, too. She’d perch on the counter and play with Robin’s hair absentmindedly. She’d sit pressed up against her side when Robin was out back smoking joints. She’d go behind Robin when she was stocking shelves and lay her chin on her shoulder – sometimes she’d wrap her arms round Robin’s waist and the other girl couldn’t help but melt back into her.

Robin just figured Nancy was a very affectionate person, a lot of girls were. She’d probably stop being like that if she knew what Robin… was. If she knew Robin thought of other girls in that way. Part of her felt guilty for not telling her, like she was somehow taking advantage of Nancy not knowing – but she didn’t want it to stop.

She’d go home and fall asleep thinking about all those little touches, about Nancy’s eyes and her voice.

Maintaining a friendly distance was important, and she was managing it, just about.

**X X X X X X**

The “not spending one-on-one time together” thing was also going pretty well. Sometimes after closing the store, Robin, Steve, and Nancy would hang out somewhere – usually they’d just go to someone’s house and watch movies, and each house had its own benefits.

Nancy’s house never, ever got boring; Mike and his friends were usually around and up to something the older teens would pretend they thought was irritating but were secretly amused by. Plus, Holly Wheeler was the cutest little kid and for some reason she took a special liking to Robin, and Nancy would always beam at the two whenever they interacted.

Steve’s house had a pool. Granted, it was getting a too cold to use it, but the novelty was still there. He also had the biggest TV and the most food.

Robin’s house was usually empty; her fifteen-year-old sister was often at someone else’s doing God knows what, and on the rare occasion she wasn’t, she kept mostly to herself. Robin and Rose had never really gotten on too well, since Rose was, as Robin put it, “a stuck-up bitch”, and according to Rose, Robin was “more boring than watching 2001: A Space Odyssey in slow motion”. Robin’s dad worked nights and he worked a _lot_ , so whenever he was home he was usually sleeping away the day. Her house was usually, for that reason, good on Friday nights when the three felt like staying up and getting drunk together.

Sometimes they’d just drive for hours – they took turns to make mixtapes for the car and, despite Nancy’s taste being pop-centric, Steve being a classic rock buff and Robin forcing them both to listen to all kinds of weird punky, gothy, new-wave shit, these were the evenings they enjoyed the most. Nancy would speed the three of them out of Hawkins to the nearest McDonald’s or Dairy Queen, and Steve would throw fries at the girls from the backseat whilst they belted out Bowie, R.E.M and Duran Duran at the top of their lungs.

Things were going great. Robin was really fucking happy, for the most part. All thoughts of Russians and alien creatures had dissipated from her mind, replaced by a genuine love for her job, her antics with Steve, and of course, the last thing she expected – Nancy Wheeler.

Her _friend_ Nancy Wheeler.

Robin wasn’t stupid, she’d repressed feelings for girls far too often and far too unsuccessfully to ever kid herself into thinking she didn’t have a huge crush on Nancy - but she was also very aware nothing would ever happen, no matter how much the girl seemed to flirt with her and no matter how happy she seemed around her. Robin _definitely_ wasn’t stupid enough to get her hopes up, ever – Nancy was with Jonathan, end of. They were literally so in love. It’s all anyone spoke about. She hadn't actually seen it for herself but everyone seemed to love reminding her of it.

October was reaching its end and Robin was pretty convinced she had everything under control, she’d been around Nancy almost non-stop for nearly a month and a half now and she hadn’t let herself do anything stupid around her, she hadn’t blown her cover in any way, she hadn’t allowed her feelings to progress any deeper than the stupid crush she knew that it was.

...and then Halloween came along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh we love a cliff hanger, we do 
> 
> not too much happens in this chap, i kinda just wanted to explore their characters/relationship a bit more + allow some time to pass in the story, but just u wait lovelies 
> 
> (also i may not be able to update this as often as I have been doing, because I'll be pretty busy the next couple of weeks, but this story will def def be continuing regularly i promise)


	5. Chapter 5

Robin is wondering what she’d be doing tonight if she was at college already. She’d probably be at, like, an actual party. For sure she’d have put way more effort into her costume, and she’d probably be getting ogled at by gross frat boys and being given all kind of weird drinks and just wanting to leave, really.

So she’s mostly glad to be sitting with Steve, Nancy, and the “children” as they liked to call them, in Steve’s massive, empty house, feeling a little bit stoned and a little bit drunk and listening to the series of mixtapes she'd made specifically for tonight.

They’d been planning this for weeks – Steve had gathered everyone into Hawkins HiFi one shift and excitedly informed them that his parents would be out of town on Halloween so they’d be having a _wild_ party, and to get the Byers boys (and El, obviously) into town for it.

Robin had broken the dumbfounded silence that followed. “Four nearly-twenty-year-olds hanging out with a bunch of fourteen-year-olds? So wild!”

But alas, they’d gotten pretty excited about it anyway – Robin and Steve had brought out their (now thoroughly washed) Scoops Ahoy uniforms as costumes, which they both found much funnier than it actually was. Robin had curated a masterpiece of a mixtape featuring everyone’s favourite music plus The Monster Mash, they’d secured a few crates of beer and many cans of coke for the younger teens, a couple nugs of weed, and a lot of snacks.

So here they all were, in Steve’s front room, telling stupid horror stories (they’d gotten pretty good at that considering all they’d been through) and drinking age-suitable beverages - Robin would have been having a good time if it wasn’t for the feeling of dread pooling in her stomach. Eleven and the Byers still hadn’t arrived, but when they did, Robin would have to watch Nancy and Jonathan be all over each other.

And she really, really, didn’t want to do that.

She glances over at Nancy, sat on the other couch in her little Wonder Woman costume – Robin had to make a conscious effort not to turn into a puddle when Nancy had arrived. The slither of bare skin on show between the hem of her skirt and end of her red thigh-highs was too enticing, and Nancy had done her make up darker than normal, making her blue eyes look even brighter and her lips even fuller.

Jonathan is in for a treat, Robin thinks bitterly to herself, feeling another pang of misery and taking a long swig of her beer.

Every couple of minutes, Nancy would glance up at the clock and chew her lip – she looked just as anxious as Robin felt. Probably because they were running very late. Not that Mike seemed concerned, currently in the middle of a heated debate with Dustin and Lucas, who had called him out on a “plot hole” in the story he was telling. All three of them were clad in Star Wars-related outfits and Mike was, of course, Han Solo, since El was meant to be turning up as Princess Leia.

“You okay, Nance?” Robin asks, the other girl’s nervousness so palpable it was making her feel even more on edge.

Before Nancy can answer, though, there’s a knock on the door and Steve leaps up to get it, Mike following close behind. The door swings open and Eleven runs in and launches herself at Mike, who is beaming from ear to ear – Will smiles bashfully as Dustin, Lucas and Max all surround him in a suffocating group hug.

Nancy rises from her seat, her shoulders tense – she walks over to the door and looks out to see Joyce reversing out of the drive, shooting her a sympathetic look as she does. The brunette turns back to the room, her face blank.

“Guys… where’s Jonathan?”

Will and El both turn incredibly sheepish.

“Um… he had to cancel.” Will looks over at El pleadingly and she just widens her eyes at him and shrugs.

Robin tries to ignore the rush of relief she feels.

“How come?” Nancy’s voice is steady, her jaw set.

“He’s being made to work tonight…”

“And how come he couldn’t tell me this? Call?”

Robin and Steve glance at each other, an unspoken _oh, shit_ floating between them.

El steps forward, taking over from an increasingly stressed Will. “When Joyce came to pick him up from work, so she could drive us all straight from there, he couldn’t leave. They were making him stay on, longer. He’s not been able to call, but he says he will tomorrow.”

An unreadable look flashes across Nancy’s face before it goes blank again. There’s silence as she strides over to Robin, sits heavily next to her, swipes the beer out of her hand and downs it in one.

Everyone’s eyes are trained on her nervously.

Robin instantly feels guilty about the relief she felt earlier.

Nancy blinks once, before looking up with a smile that doesn’t remotely match the pissed-off glint in her eyes. “That’s okay. I don’t need him to have a good time, right, Robs?”

She nudges Robin, who is awkwardly fiddling with the chain choker round her neck.

“Ha, yeah. No, you don’t.” She curses her inability to be helpful in situations like this and looks desperately over at Steve, who nods before standing and whistling, forcing all eyes in the room to turn to him.

“Okay, now we’re all- mostly all- here, it’s time to play… drum roll, please…” Everyone in the room starts rapidly patting their knees, the tension beginning to diffuse. Robin is acutely aware that, despite the couch being mostly empty, Nancy has sat so close to her that their thighs are brushing.

“…Truth or dare!”

Max and El both start cackling as Dustin raises his hands in indigence. “Truth or dare? That build up for fucking truth or dare? What are we, twelve?”

Steve rounds on the other boy. “Hey! You guys may as well be twelve! Have you got any better ideas?”

The night passes quickly, after that. Robin loses track of how many beers she’s had – she’s feeling much looser, much less tense than usual every time Nancy’s hand falls onto her knee, or they make eye contact for a second too long, or she snuggles into Robin’s side. Everything feels natural, everything feels nice.

The brunette seems to be coping remarkably well with the disappointment of her boyfriend’s absence – or so it seemed. She was laughing as loudly as ever, making fun of Steve as much as usual, cooing over Eleven and her brother and jokingly whacking the back of his head when their kisses verge on a full-blown make-out session. But, she’s also drinking way more than Robin’s ever seen her drink before.

At some point, Nancy pulls a bottle of vodka out of her bag and Robin can’t help but grimace when she sees her mix it in a cup – half spirit half coke, of which by 1am she’d had… maybe four? On top of a _lot_ of beers. And drunk Nancy was affectionate, to say the least.

It took her by surprise, but so was drunk Robin.

They’d all moved into the backyard and were gathered around Steve’s fire pit; he animatedly led a game of mad libs which had everyone doubled over laughing, but Nancy and Robin had stolen the cassette radio which no one else was really paying attention to and were sat on a swing chair slightly away from the rest of the group.

Well, Robin was sat in the chair, and Nancy was practically sat _on_ her.

The brunette’s arms were wound round Robin’s neck, and her legs draped across her lap – Robin was holding Nancy’s waist loosely and, for once, not internally screaming at the amount of physical contact that was happening right now. Thank you, alcohol.

“Put on your red shoes and dance the blu-u-u-es…” Robin half-sings, half-slurs, causing Nancy to erupt into a fit of giggles. The heat of the other girl’s bare thighs on top of her own was making Robin’s head spin a little.

“Don’t insult Bowie like that, you fuckin’ dweeb.”

Robin turns to Nancy and pouts. “I would never. Would _never_ insult Bowie.”

Nancy looks up at her, slightly unfocused eyes meeting Robin’s, and gives her such a fond smile it makes Robin’s stomach flip. Woah. Was her face always this close? Robin licks her lips and sighs, she’s not sure why she sighs, she’s not sure whether it was a contented sigh or a sad sigh, but she sighs and she starts trying to count Nancy’s eyelashes.

“What you lookin’ at me like that for?” Nancy slurs, narrowing her eyes with a quizzical smile.

Robin simply shrugs and grins drunkenly, glancing at the brunette’s mouth. Such a pretty mouth. “You’re pretty.”

Nancy bites her lip and looks away, a blush deeper than the one already there from the alcohol creeping into her cheeks. She glances back up at Robin, who isn’t even trying to disguise the want in her eyes. Robin is almost certain she feels the girl in her lap start trembling slightly – feels her pull in closer so she’s nuzzling into Robin’s neck.

“You cold, Nance?”

“Yeah, a little. Might go get us s’more drinks, warm us up, y’know?” She mumbles before splitting into a yawn. Robin chuckles, her eyes fluttering closed at the sensation of the other girl’s breath tickling her skin. So fucking soft. Everything about this girl was so soft.

“I don’t think either of us need another drink, doll. I think you need to go to bed.”

“Okay yeah, maybe you’re right.” Nancy pulls back, suddenly focusing on Robin with a serious look. “See, normally when I get told that it pisses me off. Like, I know my limits, shut the fuck up, _Steve._ Or _Jonathan._ But when you say it, it just feels like you care. Not patronising like them.” Her gaze softens, her voice thoughtful and hushed. “You’re never like them.”

Robin frowns, feeling a little put out at the mention of Nancy’s boyfriend. “Are you upset Jonathan didn’t come tonight? I can usually tell what you’re thinking, but…”

A look flashes in Nancy’s eyes – Robin’s drunk brain can’t quite place it, but it didn’t seem pleasant. The brunette shuffles off her lap and stands, wobbling a bit, and Robin feels empty and cold at the loss of contact.

“I don’t wanna talk about that,” she hears Nancy mumble quietly, a slight waver in her voice. Robin follows, taking her friend’s arm to steady her.

“You wanna just go to bed?”

Nancy looks up at her, her pale blue eyes round and pleading, the sadness tugging at her lips making Robin’s heart clench. “Come with me? I just feel a bit… I don’t know.”

Robin nods. Of course she’d go with her. Always. That thought makes her wince slightly, because it was undeniably true – she’d curl up in bed with Nancy and comfort her, because she hated seeing the girl unhappy, even if the reason for her unhappiness was also the reason for Robin’s unhappiness in a completely different way. She’d help Nancy, who was upset about her _boyfriend_. The boyfriend Robin was so fucking jealous of and kind of mad at but could do absolutely nothing about.

The past couple of minutes had made Robin feel ten times more sober and ten times more tired – sleep was what they both needed right now.

“Hey, Steve, we’re gonna call it a night. We’re on the couches, right?” Robin runs a hand through her hair and stifles a yawn as Steve looks up from whatever stupid game he was playing with the others. He must notice Nancy’s troubled expression, because his own softens in concern.

“No, no, you guys can have my bed, I’ll take a couch.” He raises an eyebrow at Robin, who just smiles gratefully back, shooting him a look she hopes conveys _we'll talk about it later_.

“Thanks, Steve. You guys have a good night. Sorry we’re not as hardcore as you!”

On their way back into the house, they hear Mike yell. “If my sis throws up make sure it’s not near any of my stuff like last time!”

Nancy can’t help but let out a laugh before turning and giving him the finger.

Robin smirks. “Like last time?”

“It wasn’t even- ugh, never mind… let’s just go to bed.” Nancy seems to shrink into herself, her voice quiet and her eyes evasive. Everything about her seems defeated. Okay, maybe humour wasn’t the best solution right now.

They grab their bags and wordlessly head upstairs, the ache in Robin’s heart growing with every step. Get it together, she tells herself. Nancy needs you.

A distinctive boy-smell greets them as they walk into Steve’s room – men’s cologne mixed with weed and something else earthy, something recognisably Steve, and Robin feels slightly comforted just from being in there.

She glances over at Nancy only to hurriedly look away again, face flushing, when the girl slips out of the red corset making up the top half of her costume. With her back to Nancy, Robin changes into the baggy t shirt she always wears to bed before heading to the bathroom.

She stares at herself in the mirror, letting out a long breath before splashing her face with water and shaking her head. Sharing a bed with Nancy all night? Under any other circumstances, Robin would’ve jumped at the opportunity, despite any nerves there would undoubtedly be. But sharing a bed with a Nancy who is very drunk and very bummed out about her boyfriend? Hmm. Not so fun.

When she returns to Steve’s room, Nancy is already just a little ball curled up under the sheets, barely visible. She’s turned the main light off but left the little desk lamp on. Robin gets it; she’s not been a fan of the dark since the events of July, either. Swallowing down any residual anxiety, she lifts the covers and slides into the bed next to Nancy, who’s facing the other way, clearly trying to disguise her sniffles. But Robin isn’t deaf, or stupid.

“Hey, Nance, you wanna talk about it?” She tentatively reaches out a hand to stroke the other girl’s hair in what she hopes comes across as a gesture of comfort. Robin never has really known what to do in situations like this.

Nancy shakes her head before turning over to face Robin, her reddened eyes causing a pang of sadness in Robin’s chest. A number of emotions pass over Nancy’s face as she stares at the other girl with an intensity Robin can’t get a read on, the dull, orange half-light of the room making her pupils look darker than normal – and then, as if something within her comes loose, she starts sobbing.

“Oh, baby… c’mere…” Robin murmurs, unable to resist wrapping her arms around Nancy and pulling her into a tight hug. The brunette crumples into Robin’s chest, and Robin gently runs a hand through her hair and places a soft kiss to the top of her head. She feels Nancy’s hand fist the back of her shirt, already dampening the front with her tears. “It’ll be okay, I’ve got you.”

Robin doesn’t know how long it takes for Nancy to fall asleep, but eventually she feels her body go still and her breathing even out. She sighs as tears start to prick at her own eyes, which she blinks away, clutching tighter at the girl in her arms.

At some point she drifts off, allowing Nancy’s gentle snores to lull her to sleep. With their limbs entangled and the most hollow, empty ache she’d ever felt in her life filling her heart, Robin dreams of Nancy and Jonathan, holding hands and staring at each other with the kind of love Robin could only ever wish for. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I KNOW IM SORRY
> 
> i'd say it gets nicer next chapter lol but. i cant make promises
> 
> things have to get worse before they get better tho right??? there is a happy ending so bear with me, that i WILL promise
> 
> (edit: probablyyyy won't be able to update this for a week-ish, because i'm away, but will be back ASAP!!)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're back in action boys!!!

When Robin awakens, the first thing she registers is the unfamiliar scent of the sheets she’s tangled up in.

The second thing she registers is that she’s pretty sure she fell asleep with Nancy’s head nuzzled into her chest, but now the bed was most definitely empty.

Robin rolls onto her back and stretches, rubbing her bleary eyes. Steve’s alarm clock reads 9:30 – she’s not even slept in that much. She figures the other girl just went to the bathroom or was having breakfast downstairs or something.

Her stomach flutters as she mentally replays the events of last night – her drunken brain wasn’t really registering it at the time, but _surely_ all those touches and moments they’d shared hadn’t been completely platonic? The way Nancy had been looking at Robin for virtually the whole party… the fondness in all her glances, the way her voice took on a sort of soft, husky tone when she spoke to her.

Robin can’t help the smile that creeps onto her face when she thinks of the way they’d cuddled on the chair swing – the way Nancy had blushed and hid in Robin’s neck when Robin had called her pretty. She grabs Steve’s pillow and smushes it to her face, grinning into it.

…until she remembers the circumstances which had put all of that to an end. Which, in the cold light of day, just confused Robin more than anything else.

Nancy had been _torn up_ over Jonathan not being able to come – the number of tears she’d shed were a firm indicator of that. Yeah, she’d been very drunk, which probably contributed, but that didn’t just come out of nowhere. The thought of Nancy being upset over her boyfriend- no, upset over anything full stop- caused Robin’s throat to tighten.

But why had she been flirting with Robin so much all night, then? Was it just because she was… pissed off at Jonathan? Lonely?

The thought makes her stomach drop. No, Nancy wouldn’t do that, right? Robin shoves the idea to the back of her mind and sits up, shaking off the remnants of sleep. She had to be firmer with herself. A lot of girls just, are _like_ that – touchy-feely, platonically flirty, they liked being complimented, it didn’t mean anything.

Robin had told herself she wouldn’t get her hopes up, but it was already getting harder and harder to convince herself that nothing was there between her and Nancy.

She can make out the sound of people in the kitchen below, and the smell of cooking makes her stomach rumble. Robin gets up and pulls on her Scoops Ahoy shorts – she didn’t bring any other pants, which she now regrets, realising she’ll have to cycle home in this weird mismatched outfit.

As she sleepily packs her stuff and trudges downstairs, Robin starts to feel the beginnings of a hangover kick in with a vengeance – she decides she’ll check on Nancy, help herself to some waffles and go straight home and back to bed. Fuck staying awake much longer and overthinking even more.

In the front room, Dustin and Lucas are still snoring away on the couches, whilst Mike and El are curled up in a bundle of blankets on the floor – not the comfiest bed ever, but Robin can’t help but smile at how peaceful they looked. Careful not to wake anyone, she walks on through to the kitchen where she can distinctly hear Steve’s voice.

He and Max are sat at the kitchen table, the younger girl laughing at whatever Steve is saying, plates piled high with waffles – but Robin doesn’t feel hungry anymore. Where’s Nancy? The bathroom had been empty – Robin glances out into the backyard, which is as she expected, also empty.

“You sleep okay, Buckley?” Steve looks up from his breakfast, looking nowhere near as hungover as Robin felt.

“Yeah,” she lies, mind flashing back to the dreams she had and the frequency with which she’d abruptly woken up. “Thanks for letting me use your bed, dude.”

“Help yourself to waffles, we made loads,” Max says through a stuffed mouth.

“Thanks- uh, have you guys seen Nance?”

“Yeah, she left like, half an hour ago? Did she not tell you when she was leaving?” Steve furrows his brow.

Hmm. Robin shakes her head, subconsciously folding her arms tighter round herself. Weird… must’ve just missed her.

“She probably just didn’t wanna wake you up, y’know? She’s a considerate gal,” Steve punctuates his sentences by waving his forkful of waffle in the air as he speaks. “And she seemed kinda in a rush.”

“Yeah, that’s… fair enough.” And, Robin supposes, it _was_ fair enough, so she doesn’t know why she feels so wounded by it. Now she had another reason to get home ASAP, though – to ring Nancy and check if she’s ok. “Thanks for the waffle offer, but I’m feeling pretty gross, might’ve drank a bit too much last night. Think I’m gonna head home.”

Steve narrows his eyes at her. “You? Turning down _breakfast?_ You okay, kid?”

Robin smiles, hoping it doesn’t seem too strained. “Yeah! Yeah, just hungover. Last night was a blast though, thanks for letting us all crash.”

The concerned look on Steve’s face only deepens at that, and he follows her out of the room and into the hallway. “Okay, either you’re a shitty liar or I’ve got best friend’s intuition, but something is definitely going on.”

Robin sighs, her mind turning over what to say and what not to say. She fixes Steve with a pained look. “I don’t know, man. It’s just Nancy. She wasn’t in a good way last night, about Jonathan not showing. And then to just leave so suddenly…”

“So you’re just worried about her?” Steve says, clearly detecting something deeper.

“Yeah, Steve, I’m worried.”

The boy purses his lips, his eyes scanning Robin’s face disbelievingly. “ _Just_ that?”

Robin makes a noise of exasperation. “Yes, just that.”

“Okay, well…” Steve raises his hands, clearly not wanting to push too far. “She’ll be fine, I promise. Sometimes she just… needs to let stuff out. And then usually likes to pretend nothing happened immediately afterwards. Especially when she’s drunk, from my experience…” A slightly injured expression flits across his face when he utters this – Robin shoots him a sympathetic look. She’s pretty sure he’s told her about that incident before.

“You’re probably right. I think I’m just gonna give her a call later, y’know, to check…”

Steve wraps Robin in a tight hug, which she gratefully falls into, glad that she can rely on him to care whilst not overstepping the line and pushing her into talking about shit she wasn’t ready for yet. She reaches up to ruffle his hair before saying her goodbyes and beginning the journey home.

What’s normally a fifteen-minute bike ride takes Robin about half an hour, her head pounding every time she goes over a bump or quickly turns a corner. After what feels like an age of cycling, she finally gets to her front door, fumbling with her keys and practically falling through the doorway into what sounds like an empty house. Good, she thinks, there’s nothing she’d like less than to have to deal with her sister being a pain in the ass right now.

Despite the feeling of nausea growing in her stomach, Robin heads straight for the phone, leaning her head against the wall as she dials Nancy’s number. She sighs, debates hanging up, fearing coming off a bit _too_ concerned… clingy, even. But then a voice on the other end.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Mrs. Wheeler! Um, it’s Robin, just wondering if Nancy got back okay?” Robin anxiously twirls the lead of the phone round her finger.

“Hi, Robin, she got back not that long ago. Do you want to speak to her?”

“If that’s okay?”

“I’ll just go get her…” There’s footsteps, the vague sound of Mrs. Wheeler calling for her daughter. Robin chews her lip. And then a voice again, but not Nancy’s.

“She says she’s ill. Hungover I reckon.” Robin can practically hear the eye roll in the older woman’s voice. “Try again later tonight, maybe? She probably just needs to sleep, I’m surprised you don’t too. But then you’re probably just more sensible than her, Robin.”

Robin can’t help but laugh at that. “Thanks Mrs. Wheeler, I’ll try later.”

She hangs up and sighs, running a hand through her hair. That didn’t sound good. But now all Robin could think about was her bed, and sleeping in it, so she goes to her room and does just that.

X X X X X X

She's woken up by the sound of the doors slamming in her house. Groaning, she rolls over and rubs at her eyes before registering that her room is getting pretty dark, despite the curtains being flung wide open. Shit, how long has she slept for?

The clock reads 5.30. She’d been out cold for _seven hours?_ Robin curses herself. That’s her sleeping pattern out the window, then.

She lies still for about five minutes, brain groggy from sleep and not really able to come up with any concrete thoughts, before the sound of her sister repeatedly slamming cupboards and doors forces her to her feet with a grumble and a face like thunder.

“Rose, it sounds like you’ve driven a backfiring car into this fucking house, what’s with all the banging?” Robin snaps as she storms into the kitchen. Her sister, bleach blonde hair back combed to the high heavens and face full of makeup, simply slams the fridge shut with a sneer.

“Where are you going looking like that?” Robin scoffs, feeling the usual twang of bitterness that Rose always seems to have had a better social life than her despite being three years younger.

“Outside. You wouldn’t know what that is, you never leave.” Rose smirks as she opens a beer. Robin huffs in exasperation.

“Those aren’t yours, you’re literally a child!”

Rose just rolls her eyes and shoves past Robin, out of the house before her older sister can even muster the energy to stop her. Robin prides herself on being pretty hard to piss off, but the anger bubbling in her stomach is undeniable and one only irritating siblings can provoke. She wishes her dad was around to discipline his kid for once, so Robin wouldn’t have to keep doing it.

Then, the phone catches her eye, and any feelings of annoyance are instantly replaced with an excited anticipation that she can probably talk to Nancy now.

She’s already craving the sound of the girl’s voice and its not even been 24 hours.

She punches in Nancy’s number and tries to stop herself from bouncing on the balls of her feet as it rings and rings.

Tries to quell the gut-punch of disappointment she feels when it just keeps on ringing, eventually going to answering machine. Instead of leaving a message, Robin just hangs up, feeling awfully dejected for someone who literally just didn’t get their call picked up. She shakes her head in irritation at herself, knowing full well she’s just gonna see Nancy at the store tomorrow anyway. Her family is probably just out doing something.

But by hour seven into her shift the following day, Robin is starting to lose hope the other girl will turn up.

And then on Tuesday, she doesn’t show either.

Or Wednesday.

Or Thursday.

By Friday, and about seven ignored or evaded calls, Robin couldn’t even begin to shake the sense of dread pooling in her stomach. Her mind was racing with anxious thoughts and she’d barely said a word to Steve all shift, spending half the time picking up cassettes she’d dropped due to her increasingly unsteady hands.

Robin’s brain was flooding with the worst kinds of fears. At first, she’d tried to tell herself that Nancy was just super busy this week, maybe. Or, she’d gone to see Jonathan last minute and just not told anyone. Maybe she was just too depressed to talk – Robin definitely didn’t like that thought, but selfishly, it was better than the other place her mind kept going to.

That place being, that maybe Nancy had figured out Robin has feelings for her and was avoiding her. Maybe she’d avoid her forever. Maybe that was it. Maybe they’d _never_ see each other again.

Robin wasn’t really a pessimist, though, so every time that thought cropped up, she’d squash it down, bury it with reminders that that was ridiculous, and Nancy wasn’t cruel, plus she’d flirted with her just as much, plus it hadn’t even been a week yet, and as many things she could come up with to comfort herself and try and stop the nauseous feelings rocking her stomach.

The fear was still there, though.

Eventually, on about the third tape Robin drops in half an hour, Steve breaks the silence. “What is _up_ with you this week, Robs?”

Robin averts her eyes. Mumbles, “nothing.”

“Bullshit. What is it?” Steve fixes her with such a stern, mothering look that Robin can’t help the smile that creeps onto her face. After searching his eyes for a moment, she gives up resisting and sighs.

“I’m just really concerned about Nancy, ok? It’s just bothering me a lot.”

Steve nods slowly. “I thought it might be that. I get what you mean, she sounded bummed out as hell on the phone.”

Robin suddenly shoots up from her position on the floor, where she was stacking a low shelf.

She wants to vomit.

“You’ve… spoken to her?”

A look of pure confusion passes onto Steve’s face. “You _haven’t_?”

Suddenly Robin is finding it hard to breathe.

“When did you speak to her?”

“Um… last night? She rang, I was quite surprised actually…” Steve looks sheepish, clearly sensing his friend’s rapid shift in mood. “I’m sure it’s fine, she’ll probably call you tonight?”

Robin realises she’s gripping a cassette so hard she could break it and hurriedly puts it down, trying to calm her racing heart. “Why did she call you? Like, what did she say?”

Steve furrows his brow. “Um, just some stuff about Jonathan, like, it sounds like she’s having a rough time with him… I don’t know, maybe you should ask her?”

Suddenly Robin feels pissed off. What the fuck? So it’s got nothing to do with her? It’s still this Jonathan not showing on Halloween bullshit? Then why is she avoiding her? Why would she speak to Steve about this shit over her?

Why would she spend a night flirting with Robin and then crying on her only to just point blank ignore her for nearly five days?

Robin grits her teeth. “Well, I’ve tried, but she’s not picking up whenever I call her.”

Steve looks baffled. “Um. I’m sure there’s a good reason? Why don’t you go to her house or something? Would probably make her feel a lot better, having an actual human around.”

Suddenly Robin couldn’t really care less about making Nancy feel better, but what she does want is answers, so Steve’s idea sounds like a good one. “Yeah. Maybe I will.”

Steve gives her a thumbs up and a dorky smile, seemingly content that the situation has been resolved. Robin glances up at the clock, more eager than ever for her shift to end.

X X X X X X

Robin doesn’t go to Nancy’s after work. No, she’s too pissed for that, and figures some time to rationalise the situation would be for the best. Steve was probably right about Nancy having a good reason for not talking to her, so there was no point going to her house all guns blazing – she needed to hear the other girl out.

On Saturday afternoon, Robin begins to cycle the long journey to Nancy’s house. In her bag is a box of chocolates and a videotape of Sixteen Candles she’d “borrowed” off her sister – she figured the other girl could do with a bit of a pick me up, à la John Hughes. Robin’s mood has considerably softened; there were still little flickers of anxiety, but the chances of Nancy somehow figuring out Robin’s feelings for her were logically very slim, so she tries to ignore them as much as possible. Any residual anger she felt, she shook off - Nancy's feelings right now were the priority, not her own.

She dismounts her bike a little before Nancy’s drive, slowly wheeling it in the direction of the house and trying to quell the last of her nerves before properly approaching.

She’d be lying if she said her stomach wasn’t twisting with excitement at the prospect of seeing the other girl for the first time in nearly a week.

And then, she stops short, her limbs freezing and stomach dropping.

The front door swings open and out steps a grinning Steve, video clutched in one hand. Nancy follows behind him and stands in the doorway, smiling fondly at the boy before giving him a peck on the cheek and a tight hug.

Robin’s head feels like a whirlwind. She grips the handles of her bike so hard her knuckles turn white and before she can register anything else she turns on her heel and starts cycling home.

At first she tries to blink back the tears that sting her eyes but eventually she just lets them flow, the harsh wind drying them cold, sticky and salty against her cheeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry sorry sorry about not updating for a while, i've been away! I hope this long boi of a chapter will make up for it, even if it's uhhhh. A bit sad. Sorry about that too, lol. I don't like putting Robin thru this stress just as much as u don't like to read it :((( but it will pay off!
> 
> Promise promise promise stuff will start looking up for our gals VERY VERY soon!!
> 
> (also ur comments and feedback makes me very very happy, thank you all soo soooo much i love u all!!!!)


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